Coca-Cola in China

The Coca-Cola Company's long history in China sets it apart from the crowd of more recent arrivals. The company built its first bottling plant in China in the decade following World War I and was the first US company to distribute its products in China after Deng Xiaoping opened the country to foreign investors in 1979.

Today, Coca-Cola has an ownership stake in 24 bottling joint-ventures--in most cases indirectly through two Hong Kong-based companies that it partly owns: Swire Beverages and Kerry Group. Coca-Cola also operates a wholly foreign-owned enterprise that produces beverage concentrate in Shanghai and is the direct joint-venture partner in a similar facility in Tianjin.